Tangled
by downtonabbey15
Summary: "Carlos, what possessed you to climb inside a yarn ball!" The BTR boys take a little trip, and as usual, Carlos' curiosity leads them all on a bit of an adventure. Things get a little, well. . . tangled. Hidden Easter Egg inside! For the BTR Plot Adoption Forum's Summer Vacation Challenge.


**AN: Hey guys! Here's my entry for the BTR Plot Adoption Forum's Summer Vacation challenge! I hope you guys like it! Also included in this story is a bit of an Easter Egg! There's a random character from another one of my favorite shows on here! I thought it might be a little interesting if the BTR boys came across her. Can you guess which show? (Or, ya know. . . just Google it, lol)**

**There's also a line reference to _Jaws _in here because I love that movie and it worked, lol. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own BTR. I also don't own Granny Sweetkins, her yarn ball, or her knitting needles. They belong to their original owner.**

**I'll stop rambling now. **

* * *

"Dude-"

"I know-"

"-of all the things you could've run out of-"

"I _know_-"

"_Gas?!_"

"I know!" Logan slammed his hand on the steering wheel for emphasis. Let's take a road trip up to Oregon, they said. We can hike, they said. It'll be _fun_, they said. Well, running out of gas in the middle of _nowhere _in an unknown state certainly wasn't fun. "I get it, Kendall! I messed up!"

"How do _you_ run out of gas on a 200-mile drive?" Carlos asked angrily.

"I thought I checked it before we left!" Logan protested. "We had a full tank!" He shot a glare towards the backseat. "Maybe we wasted it all when we had to drive back through the HairCare SuperCenter."

"Hey!" James cried indignantly. "They had a buy one get one free special on my Cuda! What was I supposed to do?"

"Maybe use the other one hundred and fifty bottles you have back at the apartment," Carlos suggested. He gestured to the dozens of full shopping bags littering the backseat between them. "Dude, I can barely move!"

"It's hairspray, not bowling balls, Carlos. You're fine."

"Oh, really? Well,-"

"_Okay,_" Kendall said firmly, turning around in the passenger seat to face them and giving them a look that clearly said "stop". "One or two of us is gonna have to go for gas. We can't sit here all night." He shook his head, eyeing the rapidly descending darkness that was covering the valley they were currently stranded in. Trees flanked them on either side, and the road was desolate. "It's not safe."

James heaved a sigh and pushed his door open. "I'll go," he volunteered. "I have the longest legs so it'll be faster."

Logan's brow furrowed. "Uh, not necessarily. If you walk at a speed of-" He was abruptly cut off as James slammed the car door shut. "Well, _okay then_."

"I'll go too!" Carlos added after a beat, tossing open his own door and letting it close with a thump after climbing out. He joined James at the trunk as the older boy removed the gas can.

"You comin'?" he asked, closing the door. Carlos nodded eagerly. James chuckled. "Then let's make it quick. I think I saw a gas station about half a mile back." He ran a hand through his hair and winced. "And I'd really like to get to a hair dryer ASAP."

* * *

James was certain he wouldn't feel like hiking at all by the time they reached Mt. Hood. His feet ached painfully when he and Carlos finally saw the eerie lights of the gas station, and the shorter boy stopping every three seconds to admire something wasn't helping the situation at all.

"Ohmygosh!" Carlos suddenly exclaimed. James audibly groaned as he stopped and turned back towards his friend. "James, look at how _green_ this leaf is! Do you remember the last time we saw a leaf this green?!"

"Carlos, this is Oregon, not Mars. Can you maybe keep walking for more than ten seconds at a time? You can see all this stuff back in L.A." He took a gentle hold of Carlos' upper arm and pulled him along, eager to fill the canister and return to the car before it was completely dark outside.

"Uh, no I can't! There's barely any trees and-" Carlos sucked in a massive gulp of air and squealed so loudly James was surprised he could still hear.

"_What now_?!"

Carlos, silently stunned, pointed across the road. James turned. A small house stood behind a large, lit sign that read, "Granny Sweetkin's Yarnball: World's Biggest!". Below the title, a picture of an innocent-eyed old woman pointed behind the sign to an overly gigantic ball of yarn on the front lawn.

"Really?" James asked, turning back towards Carlos. The younger boy's eyes were round as saucers with wonder as he looked eagerly back and forth between James and the ball of yarn. Eventually, James sighed. "Go ahead." He'd barely managed to get the words out before Carlos took off across the street with an excited cry. "Don't wander off!" He bit back a chuckle as Carlos took a running jump and practically plastered himself to the side of the ball, muttering to himself about softness and texture and other obscure things. James rolled his eyes and hurried inside the now adjacent gas station to pay.

The entire ordeal didn't even take him five minutes. He paid inside, headed out to a pump and filled the canister as much as he could before capping it and walking across the street to retrieve Carlos. The odd yard was dimly lit, but it was enough for James to clearly see the area around the yarn ball. James circled it and was taken aback when he realized Carlos was nowhere in sight.

_Kendall and Logan were going to kill him. _

"Carlos?" he whispered loudly, peering around the darkness. An eerie feeling washed over him when he received no response, and he casually removed his small pocket knife from his jeans and held it out defensively. Maybe all of Logan's warnings against serial killers were true after all.

"Carlos?" he whispered again, wincing as he realized the volume of his voice. He sent a glance towards the house which still stood in total darkness and breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't want to wake such a sweet-seeming old lady up.

"James?" came a petrified whisper.

James' head darted in multiple directions as he searched for the source of the sound. "'Litos? Where are you?"

"Here."

"Where?"

". . .In here. . ."

* * *

"I sent you for gas," Logan sputtered.

James nodded and bit his lip worriedly. "Yeah." He was starting to regret filling the car with gas and directing them back to Carlos' location. Logan's face was as red as a beet with rage.

The other two boys stood with gaping mouths, staring at the yarn ball as though it were about to explode.

"Carlos, what is _wrong_ with you?"

From inside the massive ball, Carlos heaved a dramatic sigh. "A lot." The only part of his body visible was his right hand sticking through the strands of yarn, which he waved in a defeated shrug.

"What possessed you to climb inside a yarn ball?!"

Kendall held a hand out to signal him to stop. "Look, Logan. You can play psychologist later, all right? Right now, we gotta get him out. Who has a knife?"

James held up his pocket knife. "I already tried. That stuff's like, heavy duty. It won't budge."

Carlos let out a muffled gasp, then choked as a few yarn fibers caught in his throat. "We can't cut it!" he protested. "It's too pretty! And we don't know how long it took Granny Sweetkins to make!"

"Do you wanna suffocate?" Kendall asked.

They could practically hear Carlos thinking. ". . .Is this a trick question?"

Kendall facepalmed as Logan sighed. "Hang on. I'll get my emergency fabric scissors." He turned away to head back to the car as Kendall practically choked on a laugh.

"Your what?" he called. James promptly shushed him and pointed to the house. Kendall scoffed. "Dude, look at the sign. The lady won't care. She looks like Bambi, minus the other two legs. And the emotional scarring."

Logan quickly returned, carrying a large set of seemingly ordinary looking scissors. He began hacking away at the ball, pulling away clumps of yarn surrounding Carlos.

Kendall cleared his throat and tried his best not to laugh. "Dude, why do you have emergency fabric scissors?"

Logan looked at him quite seriously before returning to his work. "Uh, you never know when you're gonna need to cut fabric."

Kendall stared at him a bit ponderously. "I wouldn't tell people you carry those."

Logan removed a massive clump of yarn from the ball, and Carlos stuck his head through with a wide smile. "Heeeeeeeey."

"Don't 'hey' me," Logan said with a scowl. "I'm destroying private property to save you." He fingered a particular clump of yarn. "Dude, why is this wet?"

Carlos grinned sheepishly. "Oh, sorry. I uh. . . I had to go."

"_Dude_!"

"Don't worry, it's super absorbent."

"What are you whippersnappers doin'?" a voice behind them suddenly asked.

All four froze. They turned slowly, coming face to face with a raggedy looking old woman decked out in a frilly blue nightgown. She was holding an old-fashioned-looking oil lamp in her hand.

Kendall hastily pasted a sweet smile on his face. "Oh, hi! Are you uh," he glanced at the sign, "Granny Sweetkins?"

The woman tilted her head so far that the messy bun on top of her head nearly unraveled. "Why, yes," she crooned, a sickly sweet smile on her face. "And who might you cuties be?"

Kendall chuckled awkwardly. "Uhhhh," he stammered, trying to avoid giving their names (she may be Granny Sweetkins but hey, stranger danger. . .). "We're, um, we're just passing through. And my friend here," he gestured to Carlos. "Well, he's a little. . ."

Carlos flopped onto the ground as Logan cut away the last of the yarn entangling him, and he flashed the old woman a cheeky grin. Kendall turned back to her apprehensively. "H-he just got a little stuck, but we got him out and we'll be totally out of your way now."

"Yeah," Logan agreed with a nod. "And, um. . ." He looked a bit worriedly at the mess of yarn at his feet. "You know, I bet some glue would just fix this right up." He hurriedly began grabbing chunks of yarn and placed them haphazardly back on the ball. Carlos and James started to do the same, all while shooting reassuring glances at Granny Sweetkins.

Kendall gave her a smile. "Yeah, so um, we'll just be going then, once we fix-" He risked a glanced back at the other boys and stopped short as the yarn ball suddenly deflated and crumpled into a massive heap at their feet. Carlos, James, and Logan sent him frantic glances as they stood frozen in shock. Kendall spun around slowly to face Granny Sweetkins, a nervous smile playing on his face. "We can pay for that," he said quickly, removing his wallet from his back pocket. "H-how much did it cost to buy all that?"

Granny Sweetkins' smile instantly vanished from her face. "I spun that yarn by hand twenty years ago."

_Well, dang. . ._

_"_Uh," Kendall stuttered. He rifled nervously through his wallet. "Well, here's, _forty, sixty. . ._ here's eighty dollars." He handed her a wad of twenty dollar bills. "So, you can buy more sheep. . . or, whatever you use."

"I use human hair," the old woman said, dead serious. _Okay, forget "Granny Sweetkins", this lady looked like a psycho. . . _Her eyes flickered over to James. "Actually, he's got a nice head on him. I reckon it'd make at least a spiel or two." She removed a small pair of manicuring scissors from her pocket, and James let out a very girlish shriek. Granny Sweetkins' eyes glinted, and she smiled sweetly once again. "C'mere, you!" She darted towards James with impressive speed, and the taller boy screamed before taking off around the tall pile of yarn.

"Guys, help me!" he yelled, disappearing around the pile with Granny Sweetkins close behind.

The other three boys stood in utter confusion, unsure of what to say. "Can you even make yarn from human hair?" he asked, directing the question at Logan.

"WHY would I know that?!"

"I don't know!"

"Guys help!" James screamed, circling back around the pile before disappearing around the other side once again.

"What do we do?" Logan cried. "Kendall, you always have a plan, come on!"

Kendall scoffed. "Oh, yeah sorry I don't have a solution for 'psycho-old-knitter-woman-attacking-friend-number-two!'"

"Why am I friend number two?!" James wheezed, coming around the circle for the third time.

"Ha! Number two. . ." Carlos snorted to himself.

"GUYS!" James yelled again, heading around the pile of yarn.

Carlos quickly put his helmet on and gave it his signature tap. "Right. I'll save you, James!" He looked around frantically for a moment before darting to the front of the house. Two massive knitting needles sat wedged in the ground in front of a sign that read, "**World's Largest Knitting Needles!**" He quickly wrenched one out of the ground before charging towards the remnants of the yarn ball with a battle cry. He hurried after Granny Sweetkins as she and James vanished around the other side.

"Carlos!" Logan called. "You can't do that!" He sent a hesitant glance back at the second massive knitting needle. "And how is that even physically possible. . ." A sudden ringing startled him out of his thoughts.

Kendall yanked his cellphone from his pocket and paled at the sight of the caller ID. "It's my mom."

Logan's eyes widened. "Don't answer it!"

"I have to answer it," Kendall protested. "If I don't, she'll know something's wrong and she'll drive out here and make us go home! Remember our eighth-grade field trip?" Logan grimaced, and Kendall nodded knowingly before flipping open his phone and slapping a fake grin on his face. "Hey, Mom!" he greeted cheerily. "How's it goin'?"

Jennifer Knight's worried voice met his ears. "Kendall,_ baby, are you guys okay? You didn't call me on the hour like you were supposed to." _

Kendall gave a nervous chuckle. "Oh, yeah we're fine. We just stopped to get some snacks. You know, nutrition and all that." He cringed as James let out an ear-piercing shriek.

"Get back here, you little scallywag!" Granny Sweetkins shouted in a gravelly voice. "I'll shave your head faster than I shave my back in the morning!"

Beside him, Logan gagged audibly. Kendall elbowed him.

_"Sweetie? What was that?" _

"Oh, nothing," Kendall answered hurriedly. "Just a show playing on the tv in the gas station. Well, we gotta go pay mom soI'llcallyoulaterloveyoubye!" He hastily flipped his phone shut, just as screech sounded. A loud _snap!_ echoed throughout the area, and Granny Sweetkins and James came round the pile once again, still yelling. Carlos emerged dejectedly a few moments later, approaching the boys while attempting to cradle a now shattered needle in his hands.

"Uh, guys?" he said. "We're gonna need a bigger needle."

"Okay, seriously," Logan interrupted. He gestured to the yarn pile as James and Granny Sweetkins came back around. "This is a problem, and we need a plan."

"Lady, I am _toned_," James was sputtering as he ran. "I can literally do this all night! You're not helping yourself!" He suddenly felt her bony fingers lightly graze his neck, and he shrieked before taking off with a renewed burst of speed.

Kendall groaned nervously and surveyed the area, trying to hastily come up with a solution. "Uh. . ." James and Granny Sweetkins suddenly came round the corner again, and he cursed under his breath. "Well," he said quietly. "Sorry lady." He waited until James had passed and stuck his foot directly in the old woman's path. She went down hard, hitting the ground with a thud and letting loose a string of colorful cuss words even Kendall didn't use. He immediately turned to James, who had stopped halfway around the other side of the pile. "Guys! Car, now!"

They immediately made a break for the vehicle. Logan yanked the keys from his pocket and quickly unlocked the doors. James practically dove into the backseat, and Carlos got stuck behind his tangled limbs. "James, move!" he shouted, risking a glance over his shoulder to see Granny Sweetkins rising to her feet. She unsteadily charged towards them, yelling obscenities. James eventually got his legs under control, and Carlos hopped into the car and yanked the door shut as Logan fumbled with the keys to start the engine.

"Logan, go," Kendall instructed sternly, jamming his finger down on the lock button as he saw the old woman getting closer.

Logan repeatedly turned the key in the ignition to no avail. "I'm trying," he muttered, grunting as the engine continued to stall.

Carlos shrieked as Granny Sweetkins pressed herself up against the door, proceeding to pound on the window as she glared at James. "Open up, boys!" she shouted, giving the door handle a few firm tugs. "You're gonna pay for that yarn ball, you-" Carlos pressed his hands over his ears in an attempt to muffle her words.

The engine suddenly roared to life, and Logan stepped on the gas so hard the tires practically squealed as they took off. The foursome fell silent as they eyed the old woman's retreating form in the road.

Kendall let out a shuddering breath. "Guys," he murmured. "I totally just tripped an old lady. I feel _so_ bad."

A chunk of the broken knitting needle suddenly collided with the back of the car, cracking the rear window and startling Logan so bad he nearly lost control. "I don't!" Carlos countered. An audible shudder made him turn to his left. James was curled into a ball beside him, practically shaking.

"James, you all right, man?" Logan asked, glancing in his rear view mirror.

James shuddered hard. "I don't think I can ever look at another pair of scissors ever again," he breathed. He ran a hand frantically through his hair as if checking to see if every strand was still in place.

"Welp," Kendall said with a sigh. "Nice job, guys. We just single-handedly destroyed the world's largest yarn ball."

"I think that woman just single-handedly destroyed my sanity," Logan muttered.

"Yeah, honestly," James agreed. "We're never doing that again. Agreed?" The others voiced their agreement and fell into a momentary silence before Carlos suddenly piped up from the backseat.

"Guys, look!" he exclaimed brightly, pointing to a sign by the road. "'World's Largest Haybale!'"

_"Carlos!" _

* * *

**AN: Well, that's that. Does anyone know where Granny Sweetkins and her infamous yarn ball hail from? Let me know in your reviews! I hoped you guys found this at least a bit entertaining, lol. **

**God bless you guys and have a great day!**

**-downtonabbey15**


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